Event Details

Dia de los Muertos: Day of the dead

October 26 and 27, 2013

10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Potomac Atrium and various museum locations.

View several ofrendas (altars), and special programming that includes food demonstrations of traditional foods for the dead around the outdoor firepit, (weather permitting); music and dance performances in the Potomac, featuring Los Tecuanis (Mixtec) performing la Danza de Los Tequanis (Dance of the Jaguars) and la Danza de los Viejitos (Dance of the old men) as well as other cultural demonstrations - including sugar skull demonstrations; flute music of Oaxaca in honor of those that have passed on by Ernesto Olmos(Mazatec); an Alfombras de Asserin (Sawdust carpets) by Ubaldo Sanchez (Mam Maya) and special film screenings in the Rasmuson Theater.

Sandra Cisneros, acclaimed author of The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, has created an installation in the tradition of Día de Muertos ofrendas at the National Museum of American History. The work, titled A Room of Her Own: My Mother's Altar, honors Cisneros' mother, Elvira Cordero Cisneros. Cisneros will be doing a presentation in NMAI’s Rasmuson Theater Saturday only, followed by a book signing.

Where

Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
Independence Avenue Southwest
4th StWashington,
DC DC

Organizer

National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)

A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

The National Museum of the American Indian operates three facilities. The museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., offers exhibition galleries and spaces for performances, lectures and symposia, research, and education. The George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) in New York City houses exhibitions, research, educational activities, and performing arts programs. The Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, Maryland, houses the museum's collections as well as the conservation, repatriation, and digital imaging programs, and research facilities. The NMAI's off-site outreach efforts, often referred to as the "fourth museum," include websites, traveling exhibitions, and community programs.

Since the passage of its enabling legislation in 1989 (amended in 1996), the NMAI has been steadfastly committed to bringing Native voices to what the museum writes and presents, whether on-site at one of the three NMAI venues, through the museum's publications, or via the Internet. The NMAI is also dedicated to acting as a resource for the hemisphere's Native communities and to serving the greater public as an honest and thoughtful conduit to Native cultures—present and past—in all their richness, depth, and diversity.